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January 25, 2004
fickle upper body strength.
i'm very frustrated by this. sometimes it seems like i have more upper body strength than i should; but for the last 24 hours it seems to have deserted me. maybe i used it all up hanging the cd racks yesterday. i found myself requesting male assistance to crush ice last night (thanks jason for lending a hand, and feel free to tease me about my girly reliance on male strength, especially in light of my recent diatribe on this subject). then today i could barely crush garlic. how sad is that? actually, my garlic crusher has always been kind of sucky and i think it's gotten suckier-- i've had it for quite a while. still. ridiculous. i feel like such a girl.
Posted by lisa at January 25, 2004 08:48 PM | TrackBack
Comments
For some reason, I've never taken to using a garlic press. Even when I'm "processing" more than a dozen cloves, I prefer crushing the cloves between a cutting board and the counter, then slicing or mincing each clove by hand. I guess I'm just weird. Either that, or I'm afraid that I don't have the strength to use my old garlic press :-)
Posted by: Phil on January 26, 2004 01:27 AM
my favorite cooking show is "30 minute meals" with rachel ray. she prepares garlic by placing a clove between the cutting board and the wide side of a big knife. she then slams her hand down on the knife, thereby crushing the garlic... the peel comes right off. it's pretty amazing, actually. sometimes she just throws the crushed garlic into the dish and other times she minces it up.
anyway, i do this all the time now... and it's also good for stress relief. ;-)
Posted by: christa on January 26, 2004 08:23 AM
Peeling garlic by whacking it with the flat of the knife is a French technique I think; I learned it from Jacques Pepin.
Seems like I read somewhere that garlic crushed in a press isn't supposed to taste as good as minced (it's bruised or something?). Can't remember exactly what, but I never use a press anyway because they're hard to clean.
Posted by: Sarah on January 26, 2004 08:52 AM
well, you have to peel garlic first before putting it in a press, so i too use the "smash with a knife" method to bust the peel off first.
sometimes i mince it after that point, but last night i wanted it all juicy and soft, which a press seems to be good for.
a lot is wasted with a press, unless you throw the carcasses into the dish. usually i can get the carcasses down to about nothing in the press, but last night i couldn't :(
Posted by: lisa on January 26, 2004 10:41 AM
ok, so a) your comment won't post right away because i have to approve it first and b) you might get a server error but your comment probably posted anyway and c) previewing doesn't work so i've removed the preview button.